What comes around goes around. John Magaw, former head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), just got fired as head of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). Magaw took over the ATF in 1993, after the Waco debacles. His mission was to turn the agency around; in the six years of his tenure, he didn’t accomplish anything meaningful that I can detect. Naturally, his reward for his lack of competence was a promotion: he ended up as the TSA director in December 2001. Ever since then, passengers, airline employees, airline executives, and lawmakers have been united in their complaints about the TSA: too slow, too secretive, too inefficient, and too expensive. Now, barely six months after his appointment, he’s getting the boot. According to the Wall Street Journal (registration required), Magaw got the boot today. Yahoo’s story says that Magaw was fired for letting the agency spend too much money and for not working with lawmakers; according to the DoT inspector general:
of the 313 employees hired who were not passenger screeners, more than half were paid more than $100,000, including 31 of 39 lawyers and 18 of 30 criminal investigators.
Good riddance, John! Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
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